


All of The While (I Never Knew)

by springair



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Café, Coffee Shops, Dialogue Heavy, Draco and Astoria are best friends, Drarry, F/F, Fluff, Ginstoria, Gossip, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry and Ginny own a café together, Mutual Pining, Past Drastoria, Pining, past hinny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springair/pseuds/springair
Summary: I think that possibly, maybe, I’m falling for you...Astoria and Draco talk about their crushes in a café ran by the loves of their lives.
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	All of The While (I Never Knew)

**Author's Note:**

> I love the idea of Ginny and Astoria getting together alongside Harry and Draco and both pairs of exes teasing each other about their crushes. So this is what this is, set in a café.
> 
> Thank you to my wonderful friends Faye and Cherry for reading this over for me <3
> 
> Inspired by ‘Absolutely Smitten’ by Dodie which is what I was listening to when I wrote the first part of this. Title and summary taken from ‘Falling In Love At a Coffee Shop’ by Landon Pigg which is what I was listening to when I was finishing this off :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Astoria is a teeny bit concerned that she’s recently developed a slight caffeine addiction. In the last month, she’s drank more coffee, tea, and hot chocolate than she’s drank in her entire life. And ate far too many cakes. But that isn’t really her fault, is it, when there’s a cute new café open in Diagon Alley?

Bites and Brew-ms popped up a short while after the start of summer, a heavily decorated Quidditch-themed café serving everything from teas to coffees to toasties to desserts — Astoria can vouch for the desserts; they put these sweet little chocolate things that ooze fudge on the menu three weeks ago and she’s 99% convinced she’s supporting the business single-handedly with how many she’s bought. Oh well. The allowance money she gets from her parents is meant to be spent.

Spend it she does, for visiting the café and buying all it has to offer has been part of her daily routine ever since she stumbled upon it while shopping for birthday gifts in Diagon. And if said café is a joint project between former Holyhead Harpies chaser Ginny Weasley and her ex-boyfriend Harry Potter, then, well, that’s just a bonus. Especially so when they’re working behind the counter.

“You’re about as subtle as a crup, Greengrass,” Draco tells her one day, when she invites him out to lunch.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Malfoy,” she lies smoothly. Astoria’s eyes flicker over to the counter briefly, catches sight of the barista with her red hair tied back in a ponytail, then looks away. Draco’s smirking. _Smooth_.

“Might as well go up and bark at her.”

“Oh, shut _up_ , you prick,” Astoria says. Draco laughs, and she does a bad job of covering her smile up by burying her face in her hand. It’s nice to see him happy, she thinks, aiming a kick at his shin; it misses, which only makes him laugh more. “Glad to know you find my suffering amusing.”

“Of course I do,” he drawls, sipping at his hot chocolate like he would if he were having afternoon tea with his mother. “What kind of a beard would I be if I didn’t get pleasure from your pining struggles?”

Astoria pauses for faux deliberation and taps her index finger to her lips. “A nice one? But that’s far too optimistic of me, I suppose. Draco Malfoy. Nice. _Ooh_.”

“Be quiet. You’ll scare away my adoring fans,” he scolds, gesturing to the near-empty café. An old lady sits in the corner, slurping black tea on periodical breaks from her knitting, while a dad has his head in his hands as his daughter plays with his glasses and smears jam all over herself. Usually, the place would be filled to the brim with workers from the Ministry on their lunch breaks and shop owners popping over for their daily fix of caffeine, but today it's the quietest Astoria's ever seen.

“At least you'll still have your most devoted one,” she says. A quick look to their left shows the counter is empty, Ginny having gone into the back again. “Think he might've been scared off already though, I haven’t seen him today.”

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Draco echoes, reaching over to snag one of the gooey-fudge things from a selection plate of desserts they'd ordered to share.

“Sure you don’t,” she remarks, watching as his cheeks go pink. “That’s why you’ve been coming here almost as much as I have.”

“Well.” Draco coughs, taking a small bite of the chocolate. “The food here is rather good.” Astoria rolls her eyes. Draco huffs when a trail of chocolate runs down his chin, then scoops it up on his finger and sucks it into his mouth.

A crash sounds out from near the staff doorway, and Astoria turns in time just to catch a blur of black hair as the source of the noise runs off, door closing behind him. On the floor is a smashed saucer, which mends itself after a shouted incantation and floats back through to the kitchen area. As the door swings open again, hushed voices sounding a lot like Ginny telling Harry off for breaking the plate and Harry complaining about ‘ _him_ ’ escape from the gap, then fade away.

Astoria can’t help the laugh that bursts out of her, especially when Draco’s staring at the door with wide eyes and his finger still between his lips. “Ah, there he is,” she says, still giggling, as the elderly woman tuts in the background.

“Elegant as always,” says Draco, wiping his mouth with an embroidered handkerchief and blushing profusely.

“You love it,” she teases.

“Do not,” he replies stubbornly.

“Do too.”

“Do _not_ _!_ ”

“Please, just admit it already, Draco. At least I have the decency to _acknowledge_ my crush.”

He glares at her. “You're the worst.”

“What kind of a beard would I be if I didn’t take pleasure in your painfully-obvious pining?” Astoria smiles innocently, and rests her chin on her fist.

“The _absolute_ worst.”

“But,” She nudges the plate over to his side of the table, and Draco sighs before popping the remaining piece of millionaire shortbread (another one of Astoria's favourites) in his mouth; bribery at its finest, “you love me.”

“That I do. If there was anybody I'd be accepting of being forced into a marriage with by the age of thirty, it'd be you,” he says sincerely. Astoria agrees, they've practically been best friends ever since their parents sent them on a date together. It wouldn't be so bad if she had to marry Draco, but she hopes they won’t need to go there. The idea of producing an heir makes her nauseous.

“Always the charmer.” Astoria raises an eyebrow and finishes off her mocha.

“Don't you know it,” he replies. “Seriously, though, I'm glad Theo's finally proposed to Pansy. If Mother and Father tried to set me up with her one more time, I'm almost certain the little attraction I still have towards her would've completely disappeared. I love her, I really do, but I'm not sure I could handle being married to her.”

“I think I get what you mean. Although, they're just another couple that's going to be shoved in our faces and added to the list of 'Reasons Why You Should Get Married', especially after Blaise and Luna's wedding.” Draco hums in disgusted agreement. “Did you know that my mother asked Daphne to arrange something with one of her friends on my behalf? I turned up to dinner last week, expecting to see her, and who's there instead? Terrance. Higgs.”

Grimacing, Draco says, “He's never liked me.”

“The thing is,” she continues, “he wasn't even that bad. Not your type, but he's cute. Works at the Ministry, in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Kind of funny.”

“I sense a but,” he says knowingly.

“ _Big_ but. He talked about himself the entire time. I couldn't get a word in edgeways.”

“Trust me, you do _not_ want to go there,” a light voice says from beside them. Astoria turns to see Ginny standing there, a smile on her face that makes her glow, holding two mugs of coffee. She's beautiful, with small bits of her hair too short to stay secure in the ponytail framing her face, and Astoria is so totally screwed. Her cheeks heat up traitorously as the coffees are placed in front of her; it's her usual order and something that is so far off from Draco's taste that there's no way it's meant for him. He taps her foot under the table. “On the house, for my most devoted customer. Harry and I both went on dates with him, you know. Separately, of course, but lovely Terrance neglected to tell us that he was dating usat the _same_ _time_. The arsehole got the times mixed up and so we found out when we turned up to our third date and ran into each other.”

“Ouch,” Draco says.

“Thanks for the heads up,” says Astoria.

Ginny smiles at her again, and Merlin, if she keeps that up Astoria will melt. Maybe she already has.

“No problem. Now shift over, Malfoy, Harry's waiting for you in the back.”

Oh, this just gets better and better.

“What? But- I have to, um- Blaise needs me for-”Draco splutters so helplessly it's almost cute, his face a burning red and eyes comically wide.

“The groomsmen fitting isn't for another hour, Draco,” Astoria comments helpfully.

Draco stares at her for a moment before admitting defeat, rising from his seat and shuffling out of the booth.

“Go get him, loverboy,” Ginny shouts as he walks dazedly into the back, and it's a good thing the other customers have cleared out during the time they were talking, because Astoria can practically hear the old lady’s tutting. She slides into the vacated seat and shoots a smile across the table. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Astoria breathes. Up close, Astoria can see all of the freckles dotting Ginny’s face, accenting her high cheekbones and small, rounded nose. The white top with gold lining the collar that serves as the café’s uniform makes the dark brown colour of her eyes stand out more in contrast. “Is Harry really waiting for Draco?”

The corner of Ginny’s mouth twitches. “No, but someone needed to give them a kick up the arse. At this point, it’s–”

“Painful? Tell me about it.” Ginny laughs then, a sound as sweet as her fudge, and warmth blooms inside Astoria’s chest. “Draco’s just as bad.”

“A Slytherin and a Gryffindor walk into a café...” Ginny hums.

Astoria cocks her head. “Not sure that’s how the joke goes.”

“Pfft, it’s some muggle thing anyway. Dad says them all the time, but he’s never as funny as he thinks he is.”

“He sounds great,” Astoria says, and he really does. Fun, like a dad should be.

Ginny pauses for a moment, just looking into her eyes. She must like what she sees, because softly, she says, “Yeah. He is.”

Her hand finds Astoria’s, where it’s resting next to her second coffee, and rubs her thumb across her knuckles. Astoria’s breath catches in her throat. It’s a wonder Ginny can’t hear how loudly her heart is beating. “Ginny–”

“I may have the record for being hit by the most bludgers in one game out of any of the Harpies, but–” That gets a laugh out of Astoria, which in turn makes Ginny giggle. “But I do have _some_ form of awareness.”

“Unlike Harry?” she jokes.

Ginny huffs and ducks her head. “Yeah, he’s good on the pitch, but someone could propose to him and he’d still question whether or not they actually liked him.”

Astoria swallows, letting her eyes fall to Ginny’s mouth. “But you’re not Harry.”

“No,” she says, giving Astoria’s hand a squeeze, “I’m not.”

“Rather lucky for me then.”

After darting a look at Astoria’s lips, Ginny seems to come to a decision, because she’s leaning in, and Astoria’s hit with the most amazing mixture of scents that smell like they’ve come straight out of a cauldron of Amortentia; chocolate, coffee, lavender, and something particularly _Quidditch_. Their lips meet in a soft kiss, and Astoria has to hold back a sigh.

 _Oh, Merlin_.

The thrill of kissing the woman she’s had a crush on for a month spreads through her, making her feel lightheaded and jittery. That, or she’s drank too much coffee. Which is another viable option. But coffee never feels this right, never makes her feel this sensation of wholeness, never makes her warm in a way that spreads not just in her chest, but to the tips of her fingers and the top of her head. Ginny is warmth and sweetness and everything Astoria has ever needed.

They break apart reluctantly, and all Ginny can murmur is “wow.”

“Wow, indeed,” she says, resting her forehead against Ginny’s. “I _am_ lucky.”

Ginny laughs and presses a kiss to Astoria’s nose. Yep, this woman will be the death of her. “We close at six– why am I telling you that as if you don’t know? Anyways, my schedule is free after six, so if you’d like to go out together and grab something to eat, I’d know that giving up my break to come over here was worth it.”

“That sounds absolutely wonderful.” It almost hurts how big Astoria’s smile is. “Now, you better get back there and make sure they haven’t throttled each other.”

“It’s the other end of the stick I’m worried about,” she laughs, throwing a wink Astoria’s way before picking up her neglected coffee mug and sauntering through the staff door.

As soon as she’s gone, Astoria buries her head in her hands. “Merlin and _Morgana_.”

A minute or so later, when Astoria is finally drinking her coffee, Draco emerges from the back room, looking dishevelled and flushed. He sits down opposite her quietly. She quirks an eyebrow.

“Shut up, Greengrass,” he mumbles.

“Didn't say a thing, Malfoy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading <3
> 
> Come say hi @balletquartet on twitter/tumblr!
> 
> Lots of love x


End file.
